


Paper planes

by Gilrael



Series: Paraphernalia [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Fluff, Insecurity, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, UkaTake make an appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 04:24:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13873062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gilrael/pseuds/Gilrael
Summary: All Chikara really wanted was to use his free period to catch up on his homework, but it was hard to concentrate when two overenthusiastic idiots were practising spells in the same room.“Watch this!” Tanaka said, stepping into the middle of the huge chalk circle Noya had drawn on the ground.---Tanaka likes Ennoshita, but Ennoshita isn't easily convinced.





	Paper planes

**Author's Note:**

> Time for some EnnoTana modern fantasy! I've been desperate to write this for _months_ , and once again, I've been rewarding myself with writing during study breaks, which resulted in me finishing this whole thing in a single day.  
> Knowledge of any of the other fics in this series isn't necessary, but if you want to know a little more about the setting, here's a short [Tumblr post](https://gilrael.tumblr.com/post/166794608203/the-setting-of-runes-and-spellbooks).

“I'll wait for you outside!” Noya-san said, walking off towards the exit.

“I'll be there in a sec!”

Whistling cheerfully, Ryuu walked back towards the magic classroom where he'd forgotten his spellbook yesterday. Ukai-sensei would be the opposite of impressed if Ryuu showed up to class tomorrow without having done his homework, and Ryuu really didn't want to have to deal with that. He stopped his whistling when he heard voices coming from behind the half-open door of the classroom.

“... almost done marking exams,” someone said. The voice was familiar, but Ryuu struggled to come up with a face to go with it. From the angle he was at he couldn't see the people who were inside the room.

“I'm glad. I've missed spending time with you.” That was definitely Ukai-sensei. Ryuu stopped in front of the door, unsure if it was a good idea to enter the room while his magic instructor was having what appeared to be a private conversation. With another guy.

“I've missed you, too, Keishin. I need to get going, though. I have a meeting with the other lit teachers to attend.”

 _Shit!_ Ryuu had to move before it looked like he had been eavesdropping. Quietly, he walked back a little before resuming his whistling and noisily walking towards the classroom again. When he pushed open the door, he saw how Ukai-sensei stepped back from an embrace with Take-chan, who had been Ryuu's lit teacher in his first year at Karasuno High School.

“Excuse me, I forgot my spellbook,” Ryuu said, hastily grabbing it where he saw it lying on one of the tables, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

“Ah, make sure to do your homework properly,” Ukai-sensei muttered, face the brightest shade of red Ryuu had ever seen on him. Take-chan just laughed nervously.

 _Holy shit_ , Ryuu thought as he quickly bowed to both of them and rushed out of the classroom to meet with Noya-san. _They're totally a thing._

It was a fascinating thought. Ryuu didn't really know any gay or bisexual people other than himself, and he really hadn't expected Take-chan to be in a relationship with Ukai-sensei of all people.

He'd keep their secret, though. Not like this was anyone else's business but theirs.

 

***

 

All Chikara really wanted was to use his free period to catch up on his homework, but it was hard to concentrate when two overenthusiastic idiots were practising spells in the same room.

“Watch this!” Tanaka said, stepping into the middle of the huge chalk circle Noya had drawn on the ground. Tanaka held a simple paper plane at the height of his mouth, took a deep breath and exhaled. The plane was picked up by a sudden, enormous gust of wind, twirling around and doing a looping in the air. Noya ooh-ed and aah-ed at the trick, encouraging Tanaka to try and do more complicated flight manoeuvres, but the plane fell to the ground as soon as it accidentally hit the magic barrier of the chalk circle.

“Aw.” Tanaka sighed and went to pick up the plane, careful not to ruin the chalk runes on the ground.

Having seen enough of the spectacle, Chikara turned his eyes back to his English textbook, but he only managed to concentrate on it for a couple of minutes before it was Noya's turn to try and make the paper plane do tricks. Not having a talent for elemental magic like Tanaka, Noya had to use a verbal spell to control the air around him, and even then, his tricks were nowhere near as intricate as Tanaka's. But then again, Tanaka would've never managed to make a magic barrier as large as Noya's.

Grumbling under his breath, Chikara forced himself to look away from the excitable duo on the other side of the room and tried answering the first question on the text they had read in class today.

“Chikara, do you wanna try, too?” Tanaka asked a couple minutes later.

“I'm trying to do homework,” Chikara replied.

“You're also taking magic lessons, so technically this counts as homework, too,” Tanaka argued, glancing at Chikara's textbook. “And it's definitely more fun than whatever this is.”

“True. But my English teacher announced a test for next week, and I can't afford to slack off.”

Chikara hated the sad-puppy look on Tanaka's face, although he'd had more than two years to build up an immunity towards it.

“Maybe next time,” he said, almost sighing with relief when Tanaka's smile returned.

 

Sometimes, in his weaker moments, Chikara had the feeling that Tanaka was trying to impress him, just like he had been trying to impress Kiyoko-senpai before she had graduated. He took every opportunity to show off his magic skills. Chikara had seen Tanaka freezing bottles of soda to create slushies, turn simple pebbles into dragon figurines, and one time he even attempted to juggle fire (which resulted in an afternoon of detention when he accidentally set off the fire alarms).

If only Chikara could be sure that what Tanaka was doing wasn't an attempt to assert his dominance as the better magician. It wouldn't be the first time he'd tried to do something like that, it basically happened every time someone new joined Ukai-sensei's magic lessons. Whenever Chikara brought that argument up in front of Kinoshita and Narita, Chikara's friends would always remind him that he wasn't _someone new_. They'd all been taking magic classes together since their first year.

But Chikara wasn't as optimistic. He was just a guy who was so average in all disciplines of magic that it was a total coincidence anyone even noticed that he had magic talent at all. Everyone told him that this would make him a great potions master, but compared to someone like Tanaka, who could throw around literal fireballs, Chikara was nothing special.

 

***

 

Ittetsu was about to leave the staff room, finally having entered all of his students' marks for their literature midterms, when he ran into a student.

“Take-ch– I mean, Takeda-sensei,” Tanaka-kun said, tripping over his own tongue, “can I talk to you for a sec? I... I need your advice.”

It had been quite a while since Ittetsu had last taught this boy's form, but he'd never been the type to turn down a student asking for help. He had a quick look at his watch, confirming that he still had plenty of time before his date with Keishin, and smiled.

“Let's find an empty classroom, shall we?” he offered. Tanaka-kun nodded eagerly.

Luckily, the second classroom they tried was deserted. Ittetsu pulled up two chairs and motioned for Tanaka-kun to sit down with him.

“So, how can I help you?”

Tanaka-kun's eyes kept flitting around, never focusing on anything for too long. Whatever it was he wanted to talk about, he was nervous about it.

“I... So... Last week... I... I overheard you and Ukai-sensei.”

Ittetsu froze in his seat. What exactly had Tanaka-kun heard them talk about and what conclusions had the boy drawn from it?

“I really didn't mean to! And I haven't told anyone, I promise,” Tanaka-kun blurted out, fidgeting with the cuffs of his uniform. “It's just... You and Ukai-sensei are–” he threw a quick glance at the door and lowered his voice– “together, right? You two are the only people I know who are... You know... And well, I have a crush on this guy... And I thought maybe you'd have some advice for me.”

Taking a breath to steady himself, Ittetsu put on his best soothing smile.

“You're right about me and Ukai-sensei,” he said, lowering his voice to an almost whisper. “And I appreciate that you kept it to yourself. If this gets out, it'll probably ruin our careers, so please don't tell anyone else.”

“It's not anyone else's business anyway,” Tanaka-kun said, nodding. “I wouldn't want people to know about me either. At least not as long as I'm in high school.”

Now that they had that out of the way, Ittetsu felt a lot better about this entire conversation.

“So the boy you were talking about doesn't know?”

Tanaka-kun shook his head. “I... I can't just tell him, can I?”

“It depends.” Ittetsu didn't know who Tanaka-kun was talking about, and honestly, he rather preferred to be left in the dark about that. This conversation was personal enough as it was, and he didn't want to pry too deeply into the private life of his students. “Has he ever mentioned anything concerning his opinion of gay people?”

“Well, he told off some guys in our year for using gay as a slur, but that's it.”

That was a start, at least. “Do you think he would react badly if you told him?”

“I... no. He's too nice to be an asshole about stuff like this.”

“Language, Tanaka-kun.”

“S-sorry.”

Ittetsu smiled. “From what I've heard from Ukai-sensei, you are quite the talented magician. Maybe you could use that to your advantage?” Keishin talked quite fondly and often about his students for someone who insisted that he hated teenagers.

“Well, that's the thing, though,” Tanaka-kun said, hanging his head. “Today, during our free period, I showed him and our friend some wind tricks with a paper plane. It's a lot of fun, so I thought he'd join us, but he wasn't interested.”

 _Paper planes, huh?_ That gave Ittetsu an idea.

“Are you in the same class as him?”

 

***

 

One morning, Chikara opened his shoe locker to find a neatly folded paper plane sitting on top of his indoor shoes. Curiously, he picked it up and noticed that someone had written a little message on the wings.

 

_I really admire how much effort you put into your school work._

 

Frowning in confusion, Chikara carefully unfolded the plane, hoping to find a signature or some other clue about who had made it, but there was nothing but the short message on it.

“Weird,” he mumbled to himself, shoved the paper into his school bag and changed his shoes.

 

 

Moving to put away some of his books beneath his desk before lessons started, Chikara heard the rustling sound of paper that was being crumpled. Thinking that he might have forgotten that he had left some of his homework down there and had now accidentally creased it, he felt around until he found the offending piece of paper.

It was another plane, recognisable although he'd flattened it with his books. Just like the first one, it had a message for him.

 

_You have really pretty eyes._

 

“What the heck?”

“What's wrong?” Narita, who was sitting next to Chikara, asked.

For a moment, Chikara hesitated. This was all probably just some prank. There was no way someone was trying to flirt with him via _paper planes_. But Narita was already leaning on Chikara's desk, trying to read what was written on the piece of paper.

“You have a secret admirer?” he asked, smirking.

“It's not the first one. I found this in my shoe locker,” Chikara said, pulling out the other plane from his school bag.

“Aw, that's sweet, though.”

Chikara did not like that tone of voice.

“Oh, shut it.”

Narita just grinned as he sat back down at his own desk.

 

 

The third paper plane hit Chikara in the back of the head as he was about to leave the school after he was done with clean-up duty. He quickly looked around, trying to see if there was anyone around, but the school grounds were mostly deserted with the exception of some first-year girls on their way to their club activities. He'd never interacted with them, though, so it was highly unlikely that one of them was responsible for the messages.

Sighing, Chikara picked up the plane.

 

 _I really like you a lot_.

 

This was ridiculous. Chikara racked his brain, trying to think of anyone at this school who'd ever even shown the smallest bit of interest in him, but there wasn't anyone. The only chocolate he ever got on valentines day was given to him by Yacchan, and she'd given every guy in their magic class chocolates.

Well, at least it was nice to know that someone out there seemed to care about him.

 

 

Magic lessons were always fun. There weren't enough students with magic powers at Karasuno High School to warrant putting different years in different classes, so the whole thing felt more like a club than a proper class. More experienced students would help out newer students, and people with similar talents were encouraged to practise together, all under the watchful eye of Ukai-sensei.

“Okay, Tanaka, show us what you've got,” he said, stepping aside, so Tanaka could take his place in the chalk circle.

“I've been practising this for a couple of days now,” Tanaka said, and he was holding a _paper plane_. Chikara's stomach made a sudden lurch. This had to be a coincidence. There was no way. Tanaka was _not_ his secret admirer. And if he were, it was probably meant to be a joke.

 

***

 

A piece of paper fell out of his locker, as Ryuu pulled out his shoes. Could it be...?

Hastily, he unfolded it and found his suspicion confirmed.

 

_If you are responsible for the planes, come to the pond during lunch. If not, please ignore this._

 

So Chikara had figured it out. Ryuu pressed the little piece of paper to his chest and took a deep breath. He was going to get an answer today.

 

 

Ryuu practically leapt out of his seat at lunchtime. He didn't even bother grabbing his bento. Who even needed food? All he needed was to know whether Chikara returned his feelings or not. He almost fell over at the shoe lockers in his attempt to change shoes as fast as possible. Unsurprisingly, he was first to arrive at the pond. Ryuu sat down on the wooden bench and waited.

It was almost autumn, the weather already too cold, so most people opted to spend their lunch breaks inside. Ryuu regretted not having taken the time to put on his beanie before leaving the classroom, but it was too late already; Chikara turned the corner, and immediately saw Ryuu waiting for him.

“Hey!” Ryuu smiled, nervously patting the bench next to him. Chikara didn't return the smile, but he sat down, leaving as much space between them as possible.

“You were the one who wrote those messages?” Chikara asked, frowning a little. Ryuu's stomach sank. Somehow this wasn't going like he had imagined.

“Um, yeah.”

Chikara sighed and rubbed his temples. “I don't appreciate being made fun of.”

“Wha– That's not what I intended!” Ryuu exclaimed frantically.

“Yeah, right.” Chikara didn't sound convinced.

“Everything I wrote was the truth!”

“Tanaka.” Chikara looked Ryuu in the eyes. “You like girls.”

Ryuu rolled his eyes. How could a person even be this dense?

“I also like boys!”

“Oh.” That seemed to take the wind out of Chikara's sails.

“Yeah. I... I really like you. And it's okay if you don't feel that way about me,” Ryuu said, trying really hard not to let his disappointment leak into his voice. “But please don't ever think that it's a joke.”

“I– Wow.” Chikara sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. “I'm sorry, I... I just... I would never have thought that you'd like me back.”

Suddenly, Ryuu's heart was beating really fast. “So you... You like me?”

“Yes.”

Ryuu's entire chest was feeling warm all of a sudden.

“And you'd like to go out with me?”

“Also yes.” Chikara's cheeks were lightly dusted with pink, and the tiniest smile was tugging at his lips, and Ryuu was the luckiest boy in the world.

  _I really need to thank Take-chan for his advice the next time I see him.  
_

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to know more about how UkaTake ended up dating, I'd suggest you read the first fic in the series ;)


End file.
